Firestorm
by Jason-Rector
Summary: NYPD Commissioner Lloyd Ramirez is killed. The NYPD sets out a funeral parade with every available cop in dress uniforms. What might happen when the parade route is a trap? DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING EXCEPT FOR THE STORYLINE!
1. Prologue

Commissioner Lloyd Ramirez sat down at his desk and decided to pour himself four fingers of his father's seventy-five year old scotch. He laid back, drank and enjoyed the slightly burning taste it had on his tongue as it went down his throat. He heard a slight scuffling behind him but only thought of it for a second."_This shouldn't hurt a bit,actually_,_ it will, a lot."_ thought Edward "The Doctor" Kane as he pulled the syringe out of his pocket and out of it's protector. He pulled back on the grip and let it fill with air. _"No one will notice, just an old guy having a heart attack." _Kane thought. This always happened. Right before the hit, he got something some might call battle-jitters, or butterflies in the stomach, and thought about what he was doing. Then he remembered the payout. Kane grinned to himself at the thought. Ramirez took one more sip and savored it. Little did he know, it would be his last. Kane took a deep breath and shoved the syringe forcefully into Ramirez's carotid artery while using his free hand to cover Ramirez's mouth to silence his screams. Kane emptied the air into the artery and waited for the air to do it's job.


	2. Chapter 1: Pancakes

As soon as Beckett got the call she knew that her planned day of paradise with Castle was over. Kate and Rick had planned to have Kate take the day off and go to Rick's loft and do nothing but be with each other. But, when the commissioner was found dead of what the preliminary autopsy report said was a heart attack, she knew that she would have to go on parade as per protocol.

"So, what do you want to do first on our day of paradise, here at Chez Castle?" Rick said as he sauntered into the kitchen. Kate smiled as he wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulders.

"Yeah, about that." Kate started with a hint of remorse in her voice. While she said this she turned to look at Rick and saw the sadness creep across his rugged features, once again remembering one reason why she had fallen in love with him, the puppy-dog eyes. "The commissioner's died of a heart attack and so I have to go in dress uniform and everything. I am so sorry. I know how much you've been looking forward to this." she finished. The sadness was there for only a second or two more until it was replaced by his expression that was usually reserved for his outlandish theories or when he is _really_ excited.

"How about you just don't go? Call in sick or something!" he said, obviously very hopeful.

"I want to, I really do, but, Rick, this is the police commissioner's funeral parade we're talking about here, I can't just say I have and a cold and not come in." she continued.

"Yes, you can. And you will," Castle said determination creeping into his voice and across his face, "we have been planning this day for weeks now, I have bought the best strawberries, candles, everything we will need to have the best day of our lives." Beckett thought about it, she mulled it over dramatically. She knew that she had already agreed with him but he didn't know that and she loved to mess with him.

"I dunno... I mean this is a big deal..." Rick grabbed her hands with both of his, one in each, big puppy-dog eyes coming back,

"Please, Kate, this would mean the world to me. I'd do whatever you want!"

"I guess, maybe. I would have to use _a lot _of pull to get this to happen, you never know with Iron Gates, but, I'll try."

"Yes, yes, yes! Thank you Kate! I will make this worth it." he said as he walked away and started to pull out the milk, eggs, and everything else needed to make pancakes.


	3. Chapter 2: Conclave

"Perfect, all according to our plan." a voice from the shadows said. It was slightly raspy, like an old man's, "the police officers suspect nothing."

A much deeper, more masculine voice of a much younger man responded, "Don't get too bold yet. We won't know what the police knows until our inside man has responded at our dead drop location."

The old man responded to that, "I realize that, I just want to accelerate our plan so it has a higher chance of success."

A voice that was of a middle-aged man, unknown to any forms of physical exercise yet well adept at exercises of the mind, said "The chances of success are only increased by 10.024%, with, of course, the offset of human error based on the accelerated time-table. Operation, "Firestorm", as you wish to call it, would have a better chance of succeeding if we waited for more intelligence, the chances of success would be 2.3% higher than if we started now."

"For once, I agree with Rain Man over here." said the masculine voice.

"All right, we'll wait, but not too much longer, I want to move quickly." said the old man. The old man hung up and dialed a new number, that of Edward "The Doctor" Kane, and said, simply, "Begin laying the charges."


	4. Chapter 3: Air Bubble

Beckett woke up to a phone call coming from their M.E., Lanie Parish, about a body. She said that she wanted to come down to the Precinct before she gave the details. It was three days till the funeral parade and Beckett was looking forward to relaxing with Castle. Beckett woke up Castle and told him to dress and get ready for some work. After they dressed and had some breakfast, they took Beckett's car down to the 12th and walked into the autopsy room. Beckett and Castle said hi to Lanie and she responded with a curt hello.

"What's up, Lanie?" asked Beckett, concerned.

"It's just who the victim is." responded Lanie with slight seriousness and pulled back the cover over the body. Both Beckett and Castle gasped in surprise, it was the commissioner.

"How'd he die?" asked Castle.

"From what I can see," as she was talking, she pointed to a dot on the carotid artery, "he died from an injection."

"What did the tox tests come back with?" asked Beckett puzzled.

"Well, that's the thing. He didn't die of any toxin that we know of. He also didn't die with enlarged pupils or any other regular symptoms of poison. I believe he died of a heart attack induced by being injected with an air bubble." Beckett and Castle both looked at Lanie, confused, "When you inject someone with an air bubble, it travels down a vein or artery into the heart which can cause a heart attack. By injecting it into the carotid artery, it can cause a heart attack quicker than just injecting into a vein on, say, the elbow or wrist." "Virtually untraceable, one of the subtlest ways to kill someone"

As Lanie finished, Esposito walked into the room holding a folder saying, "We have a lead."


	5. Chapter 4: Boots

"What is it?" asked Beckett as she and Castle followed Esposito to where the murder board and Ryan were waiting. Up it had a picture of the commissioner's body and a closer picture of the hole where the syringe was stabbed into him.

Esposito, still holding his folder, began, "Since he sent a lot of people to jail, that means there's a lot of people who want to kill him. But, the M.O. isn't consistent with anyone sent sent away. So called my buddy at the FBI about the whole syringe deal and he said that there is a hitman with same style, they call him 'The Doctor'."

"Because of this syringe thing." said Castle as he gestured to his neck.

"Yeah, well, at least now we have a lead," said Beckett, "Ryan, Esposito, check known associates of this 'Doctor' while Castle and I go to the crime scene."

"So, what do think a hitman wants with a police commissioner? Who do think hired him?" asked Castle as they rode along in Beckett's cruiser.

"Well, Commissioner Ramirez put away a lot of people with a lot of power and money. They probably got out and wanted revenge, simple as that." Beckett told him.

"Maybe this is part of a bigger plan. Maybe they just wanted to get Ramirez out of the way so that they could proceed with their nefarious designs." mused Castle.

"Castle, I doubt that some criminal mastermind is behind this, I just think that it's a simple case of revenge. Case closed, pun intended." responded Beckett. As she finished they pulled up to the commissioner's office and walked in. They came into his office and found some police tape and some officers and C.S.U. reexamining the crime scene.

"Any evidence?" asked Beckett as they walked under the police. A young, female, African-American, rookie walked up and pulled out a notepad and told Beckett that so far they haven't pulled any prints that aren't the commissioner's or any of his staff's and that they did find a window open with a boot mark on it and some mud and that was about it.

"Great, a perfect amount of evidence." said Castle under his breath. Beckett and Castle walked over to the window and examined the boot print.

"Pretty unique, don't ya think, Castle?" asked Beckett, leaning over to look at it closer. "C.S.U.? Can you come over and process this boot print? Thanks!" shouted Beckett.

"I don't think that would be of much help." said Castle.

"After all these years, Castle, you'd be surprised," answered Beckett, "Come on, let's go. I want see about that boot print back at the 12th."


	6. Chapter 5: Past

"Alright, so I got the info back from the lab about the boot print they found." said Ryan as he walked into the bull pen.

"What's it say?" asked Beckett.

"Apparently, that boot print, it was unique. _Very_ unique. It was made by a high-end boot-maker and only a few hundred people have bought that boot. So I looked at the customer's records on everything. Everyone checked out except for this guy. He had nothing. Just a bogus ID and credit card information. Guy was a ghost, didn't exist."

"So do we have anything on this guy?" asked Castle.

"Since I couldn't find a picture of this guy, I decided to check the security cameras at the one store where they sell the boots. I managed to pull a face." answered Ryan. Ryan began to hand out pictures of a Caucasian male, in his mid to late twenties with a gaunt face and blonde hair with brown eyes. He had a thin neck which had a lean body below it. He wore a brown leather jacket with aviator shades and black jeans.

"Alright, cross-check that face with our records and the FBI's and see if anything comes up." directed Beckett.

A few hours later, as Castle walked in with more coffee to keep the team going, Ryan jumped up and shouted "Yes!".

Beckett walked up, "What do you have, Ryan?"

"I found this guy, and a name. I found some kid who looked like him but ten years younger from juvie records twelve years ago. He's called Edward Kane." explained Ryan.

"OK, Ryan, pull up last known address and Espo, help him, if it took this long to find this guy, he's covered his tracks well, and Castle, get in the car." commanded Beckett.


	7. Chapter 6: Back-Stabbed

Beckett drove Castle and her down to the last known address of a friend of Edward Kane who bought the warehouse a few years ago, three years after he died.

"Police! Put your hands where I can see them!" yelled Beckett as she kicked down the door.

"Jeez! I know you do this every time but do you have to be so loud, you could...wake...the dead." said Castle, slowing down when he saw the Doctor face down on a desk with papers littered across it with a butcher's knife sticking straight out of his back.

"Well, there's our guy" Beckett said as she rifled through the drawers and found syringes and their protectors. "Definitely our guy. No poison, that's unique."

"Great, just great. We had a lead and guess where it lead, to a dead guy." said Esposito, exasperated.

"Well, we can have CSU look for prints, see what they come up with."

"The way we profiled this guy, whoever killed him must have at least as professional, so we probably won't find any." said Ryan as he looked around.

There were no weapons except for the syringes. The warehouse was dark and gray except for the lone light turned on over the body. They found skin-tight black pants, shirts, and a few ski masks to complete the set. They also found the boots on him and CSU's preliminary analysis said that the print was the same. Beckett, Espo, Ryan, and Castle all looked for anything that the killer's killer might have left behind but nothing came up.

"So far, we have nothing to go on, so what's our next move, o great detective of mysteries death-related or otherwise?" asked Castle to Beckett.

"For now, we wait."


	8. Chapter 7: MESH

"CSU got something," said Ryan as he looked down at the file, "A fiber of some kind of cloth the is only made special in Italy. It's supposed to be warm, blocks heat signatures, keeps you dry, and it's quiet. Only drawback, it's wool-based and frays easily."

"Sounds like something a spy from one of my novels might wear." scoffed Castle.

"Great, so this proves we're dealing with a professional. And we're back to square one." Beckett said looking at the murder board deep in thought.

"Not necessarily, this stuff is high-end. Only large criminal syndicates could afford this stuff." chimed in Esposito.

"Yeah," agreed Ryan, "only a few people could have this stuff. And since it's weak and can't stop a bullet, the mob won't want it, that cuts out a about two thirds of the possibles. Therefore, it's probably a spy ring. These people are like the mob, but you use them if you want to have the hit quiet and whatever stolen without anyone noticing, for a price."

"There's only one that the FBI knows about," Esposito said reading an e-mail from his friend in the FBI, "the 'MESH'. This group's leader is Federico Medici. He may be a Medici but hes lived in Texas most of his life to throw off suspicion."

"Whole lot of help that did." piped Castle.

"Yeah, FBI's been after him for a while now." replied Esposito.

"Alright, see if he's in New York or Jersey area and track him down if so." commanded Beckett.

An hour later, Ryan told Beckett that he's finally got him and found out that he's in the Ritz right now, nothing if extravagant. Espo, Ryan, and Beckett suited up and Beckett called Castle from a local coffee shop and had him get his Kevlar vest and get ready, they're about to take down a criminal mastermind.


	9. Chapter 8: Beef

"Police! Hands where I can see them!" shouted Beckett as she charged into his room after the SWAT team busted down the door with their battering ram. Again, no response came. She walked in, suspicious, and found a dead body with a head back and a hand holding a bottle of pills. He had dark hair and Mediterranean features and a muscular build, not lean but strong, obviously the Federico that talked about.

"Again, a dead end." groaned Esposito.

"I don't think so, Detective." said a CSU scientist, holding a strand of hair, short and white, an old man's.

"Why?"

"If we can DNA out of this, you got your killer."

After the homicide squad got back to the 12th, Lanie called Beckett and told she had something. Beckett and Castle went to her office and came in to the autopsy room.

"If found something that might interest you, Beckett."

"Why? I thought that this might be a suicide."

"Well, after this, you shouldn't think that. Tox came back and he was killed by another overdose, just not the bottle he was holding. He was killed by a medicine OD that is usually used for terminal cancer patients. It's still in development because there is some controversy as to whether or not it actually helps people."

"That narrows the suspect pool considerably. People who had a beef with the commissioner and the hitman and the spy master."

"Maybe, it was the real mastermind behind this whole plot. Maybe, he was cutting off loose ends." pondered Castle as he stared into infinity.

"You know Castle, I think you're onto to something. If it was a plot for revenge and he was tying up loose ends, then whoever is behind this has to be a cancer patient or have a cancer patient in the family, be rich and connected, and have a beef with the commissioner. That can't more than a few people."

"Well, let's get back to work then." sighed Castle.


	10. Chapter 9: Mainkoff

"Found our guy," shouted Esposito to Beckett, "some old guy, Charles Mainkoff, 50's, Caucasian, arrested for tax evasion and embezzlement from his company Universal Solutions, a scientific research company with a high profit margin, and guess who prosecuted him, a Lloyd Ramirez 20 years ago, and guess who just got out?"

"Perfect. Looks like we found this guy." replied Beckett.

"Also, it looks like he had some mental 'issues'," he put air quotes around issues, "so, he's probably dangerous and insane." cautioned Esposito.

"All right all right, we got this Espo." said Castle.

"Hey, this guy might have a vendetta against cops or something, just be aware, ok?" pleaded Esposito.

"OK, we'll be careful. Let's get this guy, Castle."


	11. Chapter 10: Hours

"Police! Open the door and put your hands in the air, Mr. Mainkoff!" shouted Beckett as she leaned against the wall around the wall.

_BAM! BAM! BAM!_

The door bent once, twice, and then finally splintered under the assault of the SWAT team's battering ram. Beckett sprinted inside to find Mainkoff and saw him lying in a Louis XVIII chair and looked like he was about to keel over, which he probably was with his terminal cancer.

"You can't stop me, Detective! I've already laid the charges and left no witnesses! You can't stop it, you can't save them, this is it! _I WIN!_" he shouted as he was running out of breath.

"What are you talking about?! Who can't I save?!" shouted back Beckett.

"GUN!" shouted the officers around her as Mainkoff pulled a .44 caliber magnum from behind him and put it to his left temple.

"It's over. You have nine hours. _YOU LOSE_!" he shouted as he pulled the trigger. He crumpled to the floor in a bloody heap. His eyes glassy and void of life.

"What does he mean? Search this place now, we have nine hours, counting." shouted Beckett at all of the N.Y.P.D. surrounding her.

They spent hours searching the place, tearing it apart. Finally Castle yelled at Beckett, shouting that he'd solved the case, and that she had better get here now, they only have four hours.

"What is it, Castle? I'm a little busy." said Beckett, exasperated.

"The parade, he's going to kill every cop in the city, all at once."


	12. Chapter 11: 10 Minutes

"Explosives. The parade route follows some old gas mains. It was diverted because of some fires and traffic accidents this morning, my gut says that that was his fault. He's gonna use the old gas in the pipes to augment the explosives and destroy the street beneath the cops, kill every, single, one." explained Castle.

"All right, it's all we have right now," Beckett said in a whisper, then raising her voice to a shout, "All right! Everyone has to go down the sewers and look in the old gas mains and look for anything ranging from C4 to an I.E.D. Johnson, call explosives and tell ambulances to prep for any casualties, especially from a high-power explosive device. Go! Go! Go!"

"Come on, Castle, we only have a few hours before they're gone. We have to move quickly, get in the car and I don't care if you don't use your belt, just go! We have to find these."

"All right, I have an idea. He's probably placed the explosives at structural weak points along the route," Castle took out his smartphone and pulled up a map and marked certain intersections and key points along the route, "This is where he has most of them stashed most likely."

"Good idea." replied Beckett as she swerved around traffic, yelling and shouting with her siren on and lights flashing.

They arrived at a local sewer entrance half an hour later. They ran in and used Castle's phone to find the closet intersection. They charged down the tunnels, running as quickly as they could, thousands of lives depended on them to find and deactivate these bombs. People they've worked with for years. People who've saved their lives time and time again and have developed bonds with that will last decades. People who have dedicated their lives to protecting and upholding those of the common citizen of New York City. People who would do anything to save a life, even at the cost of their own. Everything hinged on them finding these bombs. Thousands of lives rested on one homicide detective and one bestselling mystery author. Everything hinged on them and them alone.

They put every store of energy they've ever had into running. They went left, then right, then straight for while, and then left again, Beckett just following Castle who was following his phone. This was their shining moment. Everything rested on them. _2 hours and 47 minutes left._

"There, just one more turn, and now!" shouted Castle as he put his phone away and took a hard right and stumbled a bit from the fatigue of running at top speed for hour after hour. He stopped and the phone said he had reached his destination. It was a large circular brick chamber with four entrances, they had come out of the south one, pipes going every where. Castle stepped in and stepped in a puddle of something in his $1,000 shoes not caring in the slightest. He turned in a complete circle of amazement and horror.

"What's wrong, Castle?" Beckett asked as she followed him into the chamber and then proceeded to share his expression.

The walls were lined from top to bottom, from entrance to entrance, with 20 pound blocks of C4 all leading to a central control box that read _10:00_, and it started to tick down.


End file.
